Check Out Investigation Discovery's Over-The-Top Series On Serial Killers

Investigation Discovery's "Dark Minds" explores
unsolved murders likely committed by serial killers, and
its second season is more dramatic than ever.

Investigation Discovery sent BI an advance copy of the episode
premiering Feb. 27. It explores the saga of the Original
Night Stalker, a serial killer who terrorized Southern California
in the '70s and '80s.

In the episode, nonfiction crime
author M. William Phelps thinks he has a shot at solving the
long-unsolved crime because he has access to a secret weapon — an
incarcerated murderer called Raven.

"I don't have a badge," Phelps said in the show. "But I do have
something the cops don't have: someone who understands the dark
mind of a murderer because he is one."

(In a press release on the show, Investigation Discovery bills
the program as a "real-life 'Silence of the Lambs.'")

Just in case Phelps' dark words don't adequately underscore the
seriousness of the case, every time he talks to Raven on the
phone an eerie raven flutters onto the screen.

The entire episode plays like a bad mini-drama movie on a
low-budget cable network.

Here's how Phelps describes the Original Night Stalker: "Our
guy, he's out. He's stalking the neighborhood. As soon as the sun
goes down and twilight is over it's time for him to out and
play."

The show really doesn't need to play up how scary serial killers
are. The idea of people preying on other humans is disturbing
enough on its own.